How often do Sims get promoted?

[RabidAngel]

Hi all,
I think I may be having a brain freeze, but I'm wondering...
Is it possible for sims to be promoted daily if they meet the required friends and skill points?  I thought it used to be possible....but lately my sims have to wait a few days in between, even if they've met all of the requirements.  Feel free to point and laugh at me..
I'm just not sure if my memory is failing me, or if there's a problem with my game now preventing me from being promoted on a daily basis.
See, I strive for my sims to achieve high ranking status at an uber-fast rate for i hope that in doing so, I might reflect the same in my own pathetic life. 
If it is possible for sims to be promoted daily, can someone tell me what may be preventing this from happening now?  Has anyone else come across this gross annoyance?   
I'd greatly appreciate any advice on this matter, and I will gladly trader my lips as for some much needed advice.
Thank you ever so kindly.

[RainbowTigress]

Sims must go to work in a good mood for three days in a row to be promoted, as long as they have the required skills and friends.  Platinum mood guarantees promotion (unless you choose the wrong choice on a chance card).  Some swear by the noodlesoother, but I have never tried this.  There are many techniques for assuring that your sim has platinum mood right before s/he gets in the carpool.  You can check your sim's job performance by looking in the job panel.  The green bar starts at about halfway and increases or decreases according to your sim's mood when they leave for work.  The top half is divided into thirds, and each day they leave in a good mood (but not platinum) the job performance meter will increase by a third (or actually a sixth of the entire meter). 

So the key is to get your sim in platinum mood, and it doesn't matter if he or she is starving, has to pee, or is about to pass out from lack of sleep!  On the other hand, if you send them to bed in a platinum mood, it will not decay as long as they are asleep.  It will not decay after they wake up until the next hour.  So if you can keep them in bed until after the hour when the carpool arrives, they will keep their platinum mood.  JMPs programmable sleep clock helps with this.

[RabidAngel]

AH, okay!...I'll have to monitor that and see if I still can't get promoted daily...Thank you so much for that info, Rainbow..
I should have added this to my first post, but I'm also having troubled with my pregnant sims not having the extra couple of days off.  It says she'll have a couple of extra days, yet the carpool always comes that day...any ideas, rainbow?
Thanks again!!

[RainbowTigress]

You get the vacation days, but they are optional.  Just don't have your sim go to work, and the carpool will leave (after honking annoyingly for an hour).  You'll get a call some time later, (which you don't necessarily have to answer) saying something like your sim got paid for a day's vacation.  You'll have to watch your sim though, because she will dutifully trundle off to work if she isn't busy and she is in a good enough mood.  You can save her vacation for later if you want, if you have another sim who has the day off and can stay with the baby.

[aussieone]

I've noticed that my Sims sometimes get promoted each time they go to and come home from work on consecutive days.

I think it's a combination of all skills being fulfilled to the promotions requirements, being in a good mood and also having enough friends for the promotions requirement.

As well, it seems to be that the closer they are to reaching the top of their career, the more days that lapse between promotions.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'm pretty sure in some careers there's a little hitch that's deliberately put in so they get promoted either when they've got the next three days off, but still a very low income, or they have to go back a few hours later, and have to keep going to work for the next few days so they don't have the time to improve their skills for the next promotion!  But I've also had sims who have more skills than necessary who get promoted three days in a row.   But then they don't earn any vacation days.

What's equally annoying is a sim gets home from uni desperate for a particular career, and there isn't a single opening for nearly a week!  Not so bad if you've sent him back home to mum and dad and there's a new baby in the house as he/she can make themselves useful, but otherwise it's such a waste of time!

[aussieone]

What's equally annoying is a sim gets home from uni desperate for a particular career, and there isn't a single opening for nearly a week!  Not so bad if you've sent him back home to mum and dad and there's a new baby in the house as he/she can make themselves useful, but otherwise it's such a waste of time!

I so agree with you there Zephyr, I have YA's graduate from University with a particular career want and then when you settle them into their new digs, they can search the newspapers and online everyday for the career choice that interests them most, only to find that arrrrrrgh, it seems to take forever to finally hit paydirt!!

[gali]

My sims get each day promotion, as long as they have the needed skills and friends.

As for skills - you can use a cheat, or SimPe. For Friends, making fast, you can use Carrigon Voodoo bottle at http://www.variousimmers.net  - place it in your yard and in community lots.

Just now I maxed Mortimer Goth skills, and gave him a platinum mood, and befriended him with a lot of sims. He got the Medical job, and is surgeon. He has to die in two days, but I'll resurrect him.

[ZephyrZodiac]

He's a long way off death in my game - and since I haven't played him for a while he'll have to wait a bit longer to become chief of Staff!

[RabidAngel]

Okay, that makes sense....Thanks so much, rainbow!

[RainbowTigress]

You're welcome! 

[windy_moon]

Believe it or not, I have the opposite problem.  My Sims are getting promoted too quickly, and it's messing with my style of play/story combination.   Every time they go to work they come home with a promotion and it screws with my stories.

Many of my Sims walk around in Platinum level because I like Very Happy Sims.  I like to skill them, so they are happy and smart, but I don't want a neighborhood full of mayors, generals and Captain Heros.   

Are there any hacks for freezing career level?  I've looked for them, casually, although I can't say I've hunted.

That would be very handy for me.  Right now I have a set of Sims where I'm determinedly not filling that last skill spot to be promoted to the next level but it's annoying to remember not to do XYZ or bang, promotion.

Thanks,
Andrea
who thinks a town should only have one Mayor, you know?

[notovny]

Sims must go to work in a good mood for three days in a row to be promoted, as long as they have the required skills and friends.  Platinum mood guarantees promotion (unless you choose the wrong choice on a chance card).  Some swear by the noodlesoother, but I have never tried this.

Particularly, in a large family, and double-particulalry after  an all-night Skilling Session with a non-knowledge Sim, I usuallt manage to keep my SIms in High Green or low gold Aspiration. As such, I find the Noodlesoother invaluable in acquiring  promotions. If in Gold,  and SKill and Friend requirements are met, and you haven't been severely mistreating the sim, sending a Sim to work wearing the Noodlesoother guarantees a promotion that day, in my experience.

However, with the advent of the Lifetime Want, I find myself using the Noodlesoother much less often  on experienced Adults.

[ZephyrZodiac]

The specs can help too.  Also, in the medical profession, having extra charisma points seems to speed things along.

[pet_peeve]

Sims must go to work in a good mood for three days in a row to be promoted, as long as they have the required skills and friends.  Platinum mood guarantees promotion (unless you choose the wrong choice on a chance card).

Horse puckey, and horse puckey. You can get promoted every day you go to work (uni graduate or not), and even if you're platinum, on some days you won't get promoted. It's mostly a matter of having the requirements, not being in a sucky mood, and a little negative adjustment so it isn't an entirely sure thing.

[RainbowTigress]

You can say horse puckey all you want.  My sims get promoted every time they go to work in a platinum mood no matter what their needs are (given that skill and friend requirements are met).  And I'm not the only one.  JM and others have talked about this several times in other threads.

[J. M. Pescado]

Platinum is not "horse puckey". Platinum practically assures promotion because the mood boost for platinum mood is like +200, and is not capped at 100 like "normal" mood. This means you get a HUGE boost to performance meter, maxing it out in one shot outright. In combination with an already decent mood, this basically assures promotion in all but the most adverse conditions, provided all prerequisites for promotion are met. Note that it if you do NOT meet requirements, you will still max out the performance meter, and be promoted at the next valid opportunity when you DO meet the requirements, even if you go to work without it (as long as you don't lose a lot of performance meter somewhere, which is next to impossible as long as you actually *GO*).

The Noodlesoother provides a similar, smaller benefit, at +50. Combination of Energizer + Noodlesoother tends to produce promotions with almost as good odds as platinum.

Normal, non-boosted mood is not generally adequate to produce promotion under most conditions, except maybe "fresh from the energizer", and even that's iffy. You may as well just not bother going without one of the above.

[aussieone]

The Noodlesoother provides a similar, smaller benefit, at +50. Combination of Energizer + Noodlesoother tends to produce promotions with almost as good odds as platinum

Well I didn't realise that...I've never used the noodlesoother....I didn't understand it's benefits, but now that you've pointed those out J.M, I may in fact utilise it after all 

[pet_peeve]

You can say horse puckey all you want.  My sims get promoted every time they go to work in a platinum mood no matter what their needs are (given that skill and friend requirements are met).  And I'm not the only one.  JM and others have talked about this several times in other threads.

It was the 'three days in a good mood' part that I was disagreeing with. I have never seen a sim more than skip one day without a promotion if they went to work in anything like decent shape. Of course, it's so dang easy to do that that maybe I just haven't sent sims to work in only a good mood very much. A full night's sleep, filling their stomachs, and a little of the sport of kings, and no trash on the lawn, and they're going to be promotion bound every day.

I consider this one of the most unbalanced things in the game, especially for graduates. "earning" a career reward is stupid when you've been to uni - all you have to do is accept the job, snag the reward, then get another job until you run out. You don't even need to ever walk out your door. The last sim I played, within a week of leaving uni they had reached the top of four careers, earned $50,000, and had every single career reward. You call that challenging?

It would be a nice hack to make the career rewards available only after a certain number of days on the job, so at least they mean *something*.

[veilchen]

I somewhat agree with windymoon and with petpeeve. First of all, there should be only one mayor unless you choose to pretent that they are co-mayors or a triumphivrat like in the ancient roman days. Secondly, all sims coming home from uni, if put in the right careers, start out at a very high level, and promotion is inevitable. The only decent chance card in the new careers, art, will not even pop up for many because the sim's promotion to the highest level is too quick.

I would not mind it in the least if there were a few 'detectives' or 'paramedics' running around, not 10 chiefs of staff and 10 captain heroes. That goes for the other careers as well.

ZZ, once again I find myself agreeing with you. There should be a way to control the job-offerings a little more. One of my poor simmies wanted to be a 'mad scientist', but unfortunately for her, the job never came up until she was on the last 5 days of her adult live. That is one of the more extreme cases of not getting the job offer, but it should not be that way. I know I can re-roll the LTW with the clock or the debugger, but I shouldn't have to. The offering should either be expanded, or changed twice a sim-day, not only at midnight.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think really the answer to graduates reaching the top of their career so quickly is not to get them so far up the skills ladders that it's inevitable.  I don't push my sims to skill all the time, so when they get back from Uni they still have to work to get to the top!

[veilchen]

True, that seems to be the only way to control it, unless you want to use Merola's painting to lower the job level. Sort of semi-cheating in a way.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think it's happened that way in the game because the Maxis bods only ever played their own cas sims, who are screwed anyway!  Several of the ones who are at Junior level have lower skills than those who are Freshmen, and I suppose if they were the ones they took back to the neighbourhood, they wouldn't have actually started out very far up the career path anyway!